Los Angeles Sheriff's Deputies Shot 33 Bullets at a Black Man on Saturday

On Saturday morning around 11 AM local time, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Deputies unloaded a barrage of 33 bullets at 28-year-old Nicholas Robertson, who was allegedly brandishing a gun in the city's Lynwood suburb. As has so often been the case over the past year, a bystander's cell phone video quickly emerged. In it, we see two deputies shoot about roughly two dozen shots at Robertson while he is apparently walking the other way, continuing to fire repeatedly even after the man slumps, lifeless, to the asphalt.

While local authorities insist the man represented a grave threat to both the officers and the public—bystanders reportedly said he had fired in the air—the local response from this marginalized community, which sits adjacent to Compton and Watts, was swift and fierce.

"That child was crawling for his life," a man named Lanny Mason, apparently Robertson's uncle, told the New York Times."It looked like they were doing target practice on him.

Warning: The below of the video contains graphic violence

The Associated Press reports that a close-up of security footage does show Robertson "stretched out on the ground with a gun in his hand," and cites homicide Captain Steven Katz indicating the man repeatedly refused to drop it. Robertson's wife (with whom he had two children) Nekesha Robertson told the Los Angeles Times that her mother-in-law had called earlier that day, suggesting he was drinking. The bystander video of the incident, first obtained by local outlet KTLA, captures the final moments of his life, prior to which Robertson had allegedly pointed the gun in the direction of police.

Another depiction, this one security footage, does appear to show Robertson holding a gun as he walks throughout the area before being confronted by the deputies.

"He was still holding the gun and he still wouldn't let it go," 18-year-old Juan Roberto, who works at a nearby pizza parlor, told the LA Times, referring to the bevy of shots fired after Robertson hit the pavement.

In any case, a small protest quickly sprang up near the scene of the incident Saturday, and Robertson's family is maintaining he was unarmed.

"He left three kids behind," Pamela Brown, Robertson's mother-in-law, told a local CBS affiliate. "I'm not mad at them, but you should have handled this in a different way."